What’s in a Grade? Current Practices and Strategies to Evaluate Learning in Engineering Courses

Students' knowledge and skills can be developed and assessed using a variety of individual and group-based learning activities including homework assignments, exams, projects, reflection papers, and presentations. Questions prompting the paper included: What practices do faculty currently use in assigning in-class or out-of-class learning activities, What is the distribution of individual vs group work, and why, and What strategies, such as mastery-based learning, are used to encourage success The objectives of this study are to: Characterize various deliverables and assessment tools and their weightings that are used to assign a grade in engineering courses Determine the grading practices used to calculate the final grade Identify contingency practices that faculty use to incentivize, encourage, and support success This paper provides a summary of research into grading practices and then shares the results of a survey distributed nationally to engineering educators that investigated the grading policies and practices used in engineering courses to define the "state of practice." Analysis of survey results provides insights into the grading systems, weighting, type of assignments, and policies in use by engineering faculty to determine final grades in courses. In addition to identifying major course components used, i.e. homework, projects/papers, quizzes, and exams, the survey results will be used to characterize policies and practices such as extra credit, bonus points, and more unique tools, adopted by faculty to encourage students to learn material. This paper will analyze results to look for patterns of use based on course level (first year, middle years, advanced courses), elective vs. required courses, and type of institution (Carnegie classification) in the use of various means used in determining final grades.